Scripture and Anabaptist convictions

The Radical Reformation sought to order church life around Christ’s teaching and the witness of the apostles. Believers’ baptism followed the reception of the word and confession of faith. The church was understood as a gathered community committed to discipleship rather than a membership imposed by birth or civil authority.

The Sermon on the Mount supplies the language of love for enemies, peace, truthful speech, and refusal to retaliate. Acts describes fellowship, care for neighbors, and shared possessions. The accounts in Martyrs’ Mirror remember witnesses who held these convictions under persecution.

The Schleitheim Articles of 1527 express seven points of agreement concerning baptism, the ban, breaking of bread, separation, shepherds, the sword, and oaths. Their place in the timeline connects conviction with the people and communities who sought to live it.

Later branches on the supplied chart record differing congregational arrangements and migration histories. The archive follows those lines within the Anabaptist tradition, retaining the source accounts and linking each history to its people, places, and events.